COVID-19 variants are keeping us in the ‘woods’

By Noralyn Onto Dudt

We have not gotten out of the "COVID-19 woods", yet. The Delta variant is sweeping the globe and new laboratory research on this swiftly spreading variant is highlighting the threats posed by viral mutations. It's an urgent call for accelerated vaccination efforts across the globe.

First, it's important to understand how this version of the virus emerged. Viruses cannot live alone and, technically, they are not living things. They need a host, a living host.  They invade the host's cells and hijack their machinery to get energy and replicate, and find ways to infect other living organisms and start the process over again. The coronavirus can mutate when it replicates, especially when circulating at high rates (a.k.a. the absence of vaccinations). Mutations involve changes in the sequences of an organism's genetic code.  As we have learned, viruses typically mutate more rapidly than human cells do. This is because human cells have mechanisms to proofread the genome and also mechanisms to repair a sequence if an error is detected.

This past January, the United States started to roll out its vaccination program and until then, the coronavirus had free rein. It moved at will, traveling around the globe, wreaking havoc on people's daily life, and deaths. The vaccines brought a glimmer of hope—getting a jab in the arm felt like having been granted a new lease on life. Everyone was hopeful and excited that we could go back to where we were before the pandemic: meeting family and friends, worshipping God as a community inside a church, browsing for books at the community library, lunching with friends inside restaurants, traveling the world and other activities that we used to enjoy. And just as we are about to leap into doing some of these things, we learn that the virus has been mutating.  As only a small percentage of the world's population had received the vaccine, the herd immunity that we had hoped would develop has not been achieved. Now, we not only worry about combating one variant but three, and surely there will be more to come.

The World Health Organization has introduced a new naming protocol for the coronavirus variants. It was a move that aimed to eliminate the potential stigma around places where the mutant COVID-19 strains were first identified. Additionally, WHO officials assert that no country should be stigmatized for detecting and reporting variants. With that in view, they came up with the letters of the Greek alphabet in naming these mutations:

• Variant B.1.1.7 which first emerged from the United Kingdom is known as Alpha, which is the first letter of the Greek alphabet;

• Variant B.1.351 which was first detected in South Africa is known as Beta, the second letter of the Greek alphabet;

• Variant P.1 which was first detected in Brazil last November is now referred as Gamma;

• Variant B.1. 617.2, the double-mutant strain that was first identified in India last October is now known as Delta;

The WHO plans to continue to move throughout the 24-letter Greek alphabet as other variants emerge.

The Delta variant is being described by health experts as the most “fit” of the coronavirus variants. That means it is likely to outcompete other variants to infect more people with Covid19, the disease caused by the virus. Studies indicate that it is Delta that is most likely to latch on to cells in a host and attacks that host better than other variants because it can replicate itself more efficiently.

Early research suggests the Delta variant is about 50% more contagious than the Alpha variant, which was first identified in the United Kingdom and became the predominant variant in the United States in the Spring. Alpha was already about 50% more transmissible than the original variant of the coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China, in late 2019.

Although there is compelling evidence that delta is more transmissible, there is limited data on whether it is more likely to result in a severe illness.

For now, the evolution of the coronavirus has been driven largely by mutations that enhance its ability to bind to cells or grow in those cells. Each variant contains a unique set of mutations. Some of those mutations enhance transmissibility.  Some make the virus more evasive when faced with antibodies and other immune system cells.

As virologists try to understand these microscopic processes, the world is conducting an experiment on a grand scale, with most of the planet still unvaccinated and the virus circulating with limited obstacles. The evidence is clear: The long war against the coronavirus depends on the thoroughness and speed of the global vaccination effort.

To be clear, real-world data suggests that all three vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson), which were authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, offer strong protection against severe disease and death from the Delta variant. Such data has come not only from the United States but also from other countries.  In the case of the two-dose messenger RNA vaccines, both shots are needed to mount a strong response against the Delta variant. Research from the U.K.'s Public Health Service showed that the Pfizer's vaccine was 33 % effective against asymptomatic infection from Delta after the first shot of the two-shot regimen, but 88% effective after the second. In terms of preventing hospitalizations from Delta, a report published recently by the journal Nature suggested that the Pfizer vaccine was 94% effective after the first shot and 96% after the second.   Since the Moderna vaccine uses the same technology as the one from Pfizer, health experts extrapolate that it offers similar protection. Additionally, both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are also known to spark the creation of "memory B cells," which can quickly produce antibodies in the future if they encounter the virus again and can even adapt to its variants.  The vaccine also prompted the creation of "T cells," which protect us against severe disease. Data from La Jolla Institute for Immunology and the University of California-San Francisco show that the T cell response from the vaccines is strong across all variants.

Without herd immunity, these variants will continue to lurk in "the woods", threatening our lives, ruining the world's economy and destabilizing the world order. We cannot be complacent; we are not out of the "woods" yet. We need to be proactive—get vaccinated, wear masks especially in crowded indoor gatherings, continue to practice physical distancing, and stay as healthy and fit as possible.  New mutations will arise and there may not be enough letters in the Greek alphabet to name them. But let us mount an aggressive response so we can say goodbye forever to Alpha, Beta, and Delta and get out of the dark—the "woods" that the Corona had put us under its control.

 

Noralyn Onto Dudt had worked for over 3 decades with her MD PhDs students in getting their scientific/medical findings into publication in medical journals. While she is very concerned about where the virus may be leading us, she is otherwise optimistic that with God's guidance along with hard-working and dedicated scientists and full cooperation among peoples worldwide, we will overcome as we always have.